Managing the Work Situation

Managing the Work Situation outlines a perspective on how organization and management in the contemporary world of work happens as active everyday accomplishments by workers and managers, facing and handling complex work situations with an excess of expectations. Based on philosophical and sociological phenomenology, notably Jean-Paul Sartre's and Erving Goffman's works, the book coins a situation-centric perspective on organization and management, and the concept of 'situational sensemaking', as the driving mechanism of organization as well as the focus of management - characterized as 'situation management'. The book addresses an academic audience with interests in organization and management of work, both theoretically and practically. A prime audience will be (academic and executive) master students in organization and management.

Lars Klemsdal is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. His research interests include processes of organizing, management of organizational change and development, institutional change during public sector reforms, and sociological and organizational theory. He is particularly concerned with foundational issues concerning agency and theories of knowledge in organization and management contexts. He works mostly through microsociological, pragmatist, and phenomenological approaches.

Introduction 1. A Working Life with an Excess of Expectations Part 1: Situations 2. Situational Sensemaking 3. Agency in Context 4. The Context of (Work)Situations Part 2: Organization(s) 5. Organization as an Outcome of Situational Sensemaking 6. Organization(s) as Input to Situational Sensemaking Part 3: Management 7. (De)Coupling of Management and Managers 8. Managing the Organization of the New Town Hall 9. Situation Management Conclusion